[from IMDb Movie & TV News]

Ian McKellen has called Quentin Tarantino's recent remarks about greedy British stars being responsible for the collapse of the U.K. film industry "disingenuous."

At a news conference in Cannes last week, Tarantino remarked, "As soon as people become stars in Britain they get the hell out of there and go to Hollywood."

However, in an interview today with the London Independent, McKellen, perhaps best known outside of Britain for his role as the wizard Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films, responded: "Not in my own case! If there is a collective blame for the decline in a homegrown film industry, it would more fairly rest on financiers and producers rather than on the actors like me who would love to live at home and film in the U.K."

He also pointed out that it is difficult to create successful homegrown films given the relatively small size of the British population. "The U.K.," he observed, "is about five percent of the world market for movies."

Published May 21, 2004